The newly formed American Society of Health Economists (ASHE), a professional organization dedicated to promoting excellence in health economics research, is planning its inaugural conference. The broad goal of the conference is to help meet the needs of the growing profession of health economists by hosting a forum for the exchange of ideas and presentation of empirical results of health economics research. A more specific goal is to host a conference that is open to a wide audience but that has selective acceptance of papers and posters to ensure high quality research and presentations. ? ? The conference program will feature papers on a wide variety of health economics issues, including topics in the areas of substance abuse (e.g. theories of addiction, cost-effectiveness of treatments, and tobacco control policies), disparities, and other topics of interest to NIDA specifically and to NIH in general. Of particular interest to NIDA, we have one invited session (3 papers and 3 discussants) on the economics of substance abuse and will likely have more that come through the competitive submission process. One of our invited plenary speakers, Dr. Doug Bernheim, a professor at Stanford University, will be speaking on the further development of his theories of addiction. ? ? Likely attendees include: researchers from academics (many of whom are NIDA awardees), think tanks, and Government; students in PhD programs; funders including NIH and private foundations; and other users of health economics research. We will offer discounts to attract PhD students, who will gain from exposure to the wide range of research topics by being able to meet senior researchers in their study area and by learning from the informative pre-conference opportunities. ? ? Jody Sindelar, Vice President and President-elect of ASHE (and recipient of NIDA funding), is in charge of the scientific content of the conference and is directly involved with the logistics of the conference planning. ASHE has a prominent set of faculty and researchers who compose its Officers (including Dr. Joe Newhouse, Harvard Professor), Board of Advisors, Advisory Board and Scientific Committee, and planning committee from the University of Wisconsin (John Mullahy, ASHE Board Member and Co-Chair of the Madison Conference, Barbara Wolfe Co-Chair, and David Vanness). ? ? ?
